Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Many of the learners complain about the difficulties encountered with various forms of nouns and pronouns in different sentences. Yes the concept of "case" is tricky but I'll try my best to explain it simply.

Wikipedia says:"Case is a grammatical category whose value reflects the grammatical function performed by a noun or pronoun in a phrase, clause, or sentence. In some languages, nouns, pronouns and their modifiers take different inflected forms depending on what case they are in. English has largely lost its case system, although case distinctions can still be seen with the personal pronouns: forms such as I, he and we are used in the role of subject ("I kicked the ball"), while forms such as me, him and us are used in the role of object ("John kicked me")."

So, in short, nouns and pronouns change their form depending upon the function performed by or upon them. These different cases is what's called "CASE" of that noun/pronoun.

While I'll discuss different cases (8 in total) separately in different posts, let me first discuss about the "case form" (ਕਾਰਕ ਰੂਪ/کارک روپ) of nouns and pronouns. There are 4 forms which a noun or a pronoun can take depending upon the type of case (represented by the symbol of that case) it is used with:

1. Direct form (ਸਧਾਰਨ ਰੂਪ سدھارن روپ):

When no "case symbol" (ਕਾਰਕ ਚਿੰਨ کارک چنہ) is used. In all the conjugations shown till now, we've been using this case, the simplest of 'em all.

ਮੁੰਡਾ ਪੜ੍ਹਦਾ ਹੈ।

منڈا پڑھدا ہے۔

The boy reads.

ਕੁੜੀਆਂ ਨੱਚ ਰਹੀਆਂ ਹਨ।کڑیاں نچّ رہیاں ہن۔

The girls are dancing.

Since no case symbol is used, ਮੁੰਡਾ/منڈا and ਕੁੜੀਆਂ/کڑیاں are in their direct form.

2. Post-positional form (ਸਬੰਧਕੀ ਰੂਪ سبندھکی روپ):

As the name suggests, whenever the noun or pronoun is followed by a post-position (Punjabi uses post-positions and not prepositions!) this form is used. Here the post-position used is the case symbol.

ਕੁੱਤੇ ਨੇ ਰਾਜੂ ਨੂੰ ਵੱਢਿਆ।کتے نے راجو نوں وڈھیا۔

The dog bit Raju.

ਕੁੱਤੀ ਨੇ ਰਾਜੂ ਨੂੰ ਵੱਢਿਆ।کتی نے راجو نوں وڈھیا۔

The bitch bit Raju.

ਇਹ ਮੈਨੂੰ ਦੇ ਦਿਓ।ایہہ مینوں دے دیو۔

Give it to me.

The nouns 'ਕੁੱਤਾ/کتا', 'ਕੁੱਤੀ/کتی', 'ਰਾਜੂ/راجو', 'ਮੈਂ/میں' are all in their post-positional form since they are followed by post-positions like 'ਨੇ' or 'ਨੂੰ'.

Well this form takes the previous one to whole new level!!! The case symbol (i.e. the post-position) is incorporated into the noun or pronoun itself. The expanded forms (as chalked out in point 2 above) are given in parentheses. This form is very common in colloquial Punjabi but they are not applicable for each and every noun or pronoun. Only few nouns/pronouns use it.

Singular nouns (ਮੁੰਡਾ/ਚਾਚਾ/ਖੋਤਾ/ਘੋੜਾ منڈا/چاچا/کھوتا/گھوڑا): Terminal kanna is changed to terminal laanv (-ੇ). So they become ਮੁੰਡੇ/منڈے, ਚਾਚੇ/چاچے, ਖੋਤੇ/کھوتے, ਘੋੜੇ/گھوڑے etc. which is incidentally the plural form in the direct/simple case. The direct case is given as a reference.

Plural nouns (ਮੁੰਡੇ/ਚਾਚੇ/ਖੋਤੇ/ਘੋੜੇ منڈے/چاچے/کھوتے/گھوڑے): Terminal laanv is changed to a sihari (ਿ) with the penultimate character and ending with ਆਂ. So they become ਮੁੰਡਿਆਂ/منڈیاں, ਚਾਚਿਆਂ/چاچیاں, ਖੋਤਿਆਂ/کھوتیاں, ਘੋੜਿਆਂ/گھوڑیاں etc. which vaguely (there's a difference of sihari vs bihari) resembles the plural forms of feminine nouns.

Friday, 7 March 2014

What will you be doing today? Except going through these conjugations, of course! Here's the conjugation pattern for future continuous tense. Simple indeed if you already know the continuity indicators and the future form of 'to be' (ਹੋਣਾ/ہونا) verb.

Supreet will be waiting for me.

ਸੁਪ੍ਰੀਤ ਮੇਰੀ ਉਡੀਕ ਕਰ ਰਹੀ ਹੋਵੇਗੀ।

سپریت میری اڈیک کر رہی ہوویگی۔

I will be writing tomorrow.

ਮੈਂ ਭਲਕੇ ਲਿਖ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੋਵਾਂਗਾ।

میں بھلکے لکھ رہا ہووانگا۔

ਨੱਚਣਾ/نچنا (to dance)

Monday, 3 March 2014

Very interesting! Unlike English, Punjabi has two variants for the first person plural pronouns i.e. We, our, ours, us etc. depending on whether the listener is included in this "we/us" or not. It's quite unique to Punjabi. Here's a brief illustration using hypothetical scenarios:

ਅਸੀਂ/ਸਾਡਾ/ਸਾਨੂੰ اسیں/ساڈا/سانوں

You and your sister are informing your parents that you two siblings are going to school (ਸਕੂਲ ਜਾਣਾ/سکول جانا). Since the listener i.e. the parents are not included in this group (the one going to school), we will use ਅਸੀਂ/اسیں. So these siblings would say:

ਆਪਾਂ/ਆਪਣਾ/ਆਪਾਂ ਨੂੰ آپاں/اپنا/آپاں نوں

You and your family are going for a picnic and you all are talking among yourselves, making plans and all. Since the listeners i.e. your family is also included in this "we" (the group which is going for the picnic), ਆਪਾਂ/آپاں root is used. So you'd say:

Speaker: any family member;Listener: the whole family

ਆਪਾਂ ਪਿਕਨਿਕ 'ਤੇ ਜਾ ਰਹੇ ਹਾਂ।آپاں پکنک 'تے جا رہے ہاں۔We (all) are going for a picnic.ਆਪਣੀ ਰੋਟੀ ਕਿੱਥੇ ਹੈ?اپنی روٹی کتھے ہے؟Where is our food?ਆਪਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਗੱਡੀ ਕੌਣ ਦੇਵੇਗਾ?آپاں نوں گڈی کون دیویگا؟Who will provide us with a car?
If one of your family member is not going to the picnic and someone who's going to is talking to that person, he'd again use the first case i.e. ਅਸੀਂ/اسیں because the listener is not included in the 'we'.

Another scenario:

A politician, while addressing a crowd on behalf of his party, about the work he and his party members have done in the past years, would use "ਅਸੀਂ/اسیں" since the work has been carried out by him and the other members and not the audience.

Our party did this and that. (The party doesn't include the audience)

ਸਾਡੀ ਪਾਰਟੀ ਨੇ ਇਹ ਕੀਤਾ, ਉਹ ਕੀਤਾ।

ساڈی پارٹی نے ایہہ کیتا، اوہ کیتا۔

The same politician while urging the audience with statements like "Let's work together for a better future" or "We all need to work towards this common goal" would use "ਆਪਾਂ/آپاں" since he's including the audience too in this usage of 'we'.

Our constituency experienced the most development. (The constituency includes the audience)

ਆਪਣੇ ਹਲਕੇ ਵਿਚ ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਵੱਧ ਤਰੱਕੀ ਹੋਈ।

اپنے ہلکے وچ سبھ توں ودھ ترقی ہوئی۔

The conjugations with ਆਪਾਂ/آپاں follow the same pattern as those with ਅਸੀਂ/اسیں. So no worries there!